Azitra (Indian Cuisine), Broomfield

Update Monday, May 18, 2020.

More food pics from Azitra. Yes, we go there a lot, even now, for takeouts.

You may have noticed these chicken wings showing up a few times too many. That's because it's another dish, an appetizer, that we order every time. Well, more like I order it every time :P These are ordinary fried wings dressed in a ghost pepper sauce spiced with Indian herbs and seasonings, which makes them not-so-ordinary. These are not for the faint-of-hearts. They've got a real kick to them, and think more so Yip Man and less so wire-fu. The samosas are great too, and hubby loves the chutney.



And of course, the Crabmeat Masala (left) and the Kerala Seafood Curry (right). The one thing that surprises me about the food at Azitra is that they make really delicious seafood curries. I've never had seafood curries this tasty, and they're way more interesting and flavorful than the usual chicken. As for desserts, to be honest hubby and I have only ordered a few, because we'd be stuffed every time we go that there just isn't any room left for sweets ^.^"

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Original post Sunday, May 9, 2020.

We haven't known Azitra for very long even though they've been around since 2011. We'd been living in Boulder and only learned about the place after moving out of Boulder into our current permanent home. I think we went to Azitra for the first time in the early fall of 2018, and we haven't been able to keep away since. This place serves some of the best Indian food we've had, ever, second only to Annam in Ginza, and thankfully without the same blowhard a$$ of an owner.

Tokyo Eats - Ginza area Part III

Wow, has it really been more than a year since my last Ginza post?! Anyway, here's the last of the Ginza series and a long post ahead. I'm almost through with the rest of the Tokyo food photos too. I guess I should be happy to finally be done with the gigantic photo backlog, but coming to the end of the Japan pictures makes me so sad and nostalgic :(

Mum-in-law visited us back in early April 2016 with her older sister, aunt D. Aunt D. was the one who took this pic, with me photo-bombing hubby and his mum ^.^

Tokyo Eats - Tokyo Station Part II

Since discovering the Kitte building in the spring, I've been bringing hubby, friends, and visiting family back again and again. Of course, Tokyo Station is huge and this is just a tiny sliver of it, I'm just slow to explore, that's all :P

This is the inside of that red dome. Pretty, huh?

Fillmore Street, San Francisco Part II (Picture heavy!)

Combining some posts again, and adding in new ones. Here are more food porn on Fillmore Street, in poor lighting that adds to their mysteriousness. Just kidding.

- La Mediterranee - Fillmore: my friend A. recommended this place to me and I owe her a big favor for it. This place singlehandedly made me a fan of Middle Eastern/Mediterranean food. I always thought my tastebuds are prejudice against the cuisine. Sure hubby and I loved the Turkish Kebab Truck in Yokohama, but since that was fast food it's not a fair comparison. In Japan we've also had authentic Arabian food, complete with a live belly dance performance (Al Ain, near Kannai Station, the chef used to be the executive chef at the Kuwaiti Embassy, this was not some pretend-exotic restaurant), and Greek (Sparta Restaurant, again near Kannai). Then there was also poshy Greek food in Manhattan, fancy Turkish elsewhere, blah blah blah. Nope, none of that did anything for me. They were good, but nothing to write home about. But La Mediterranee? I ate lunch there once with A. and immediately made a reservation for dinner with hubby the Friday after. Since then, I've ordered catering from there, had lunches and dinners. Thank goodness my tastebuds weren't prejudice - I just haven't had Middle Eastern/Mediterranean food that really impressed me. Until now. Whether you're new to this cuisine or a seasoned fan, you must try this place!

Japantown, San Francisco Part III

Been cleaning up my blog some recently. I'm combining a few posts into this one with the addition of a couple new ones (Kappa and Kissako Tea) ^.^

- Kappa: let's get this out of the way - this is NOT a sushi restaurant. Kappa is located at the corner of Webster and Buchanan and well hidden on the second floor, sharing an entrance with Milo Lounge. This tiny little restaurant serves up Kyoto style kaiseki in a very intimate setting - the place's run solely by the chef and his wife. And all that will cost you - the omakase 7-course set meal is $86/person. With drinks, you can easily run up a tab of $200+ for 2. Reservations are made by phone or email only. And the omakase must be reserved at least 1 day in advance. You'll see why below.

Shida Night Market Eats, Taipei, Part II (師大路夜市, Picture heavy!)

Really struggling to put up these last Taipei food posts here...

Lantern Soy Sauce Braised (燈籠滷味) is one of the more well known and popular stands at Shida Night Market.  We actually stumbled onto it prior to reading the CNN 40 Taiwanese Food article and went in head first, not knowing what to expect. There was always a giant crowd gathering around the stand, and given there were several similar food stands at Shida Night Market that were often deserted, our curiosity couldn't resist the consistent stream of business this particular stand got and so we got in line ourselves ^.^

Basically, this is a Taiwanese version of the Japanese oden. Mind you, this is not to say "who came first". I honestly don't know and I don't give a rat's ass. I just know I love oden, and when I saw this I must have it, because I miss oden very much T.T Of course it's not identical to oden, but it's very similar in terms of ingredients: eggs (quail, versus chicken in oden), a wide variety of fish cakes, konnyaku, tofu,  mochi, a variety of vegetables (daikon, shiitake, enoki, green leafy greens, etc.), with added extras of noodles (cellophane noodles 冬粉, ramen, etc.), even meats, seafood, and intestines (a Taiwanese favorite!). 

Taipei Eats - Ximending area Part II (西門町)

Want to get these food posts up too lest I get too distracted and forget about them!

I went back to Yu's Almond Tofu rather frequently up until we left. I just couldn't get enough of their almond milk shaved ice! And then one night, I worked up the nerve to branch out and tried the old style breakfast almond milk with almond jelly in it. It was served warm and oh my I loved every bite of it! It was mildly sweet but was warming and soothing, especially when the weather was cooling down a bit.

Still like the almond milk shaved ice better, but I was glad to have tried something else too. Every subsequent visit thereafter I ordered both the shaved ice and the breakfast milk with jelly LOL! 

Old breakfast style almond milk with almond jelly - yum!

Taipei Eats - Zhongxiao East Road area Part II (忠孝東路, Picture heavy!)

More food ^.^

Hotpot is a must-try in Taipei, especially spicy hotpot (麻辣火鍋). That said, surprisingly hubby and I weren't too thrilled. I like it enough and hubby does too, but for some reason the spice really bothers his stomach and so we didn't eat it as much. When my sister visited though, we did take her along with J., her old friend from high school, to a hotpot restaurant, Artisan Hotpot (火鍋世家). 

The place is a chain, and it's nothing fancy or "famous," but it's unique in serving "individual" hotpot, as in everyone gets their own hotpot and no sharing is required. If you ask me, it really defeats the purpose of hotpot but whatever, we weren't too picky and the place was packed, so we figured it couldn't have been that bad.

Maharaja (Indian Cuisine)

Went to a Maharaja Indian restaurant at Shin Yokohama Station recently and had a good meal there. Although the name Maharaja greatly confuses me - how many freakin' Indian restaurants out there with this same exact name? I've always thought they are a chain, but then a google search yielded a bunch of different Maharaja restaurant websites and it didn't look like they are affiliated with each other. Did I miss something? I thought businesses within the US cannot have the same name, but it seems every US state has at least one Maharaja restaurant that isn't affiliated to the next state's O.o

Anyway, so it seems there are Maharaja restaurants here in Japan too, although the one I went to indeed belongs to a Maharaja Group chain that also owns Khazana, another Indian restaurant hubby and I frequent. See the chain's official website (in English and Japanese).

Tikka platter with 2 pieces of chicken and 2 giant shrimps. We actually started eating before I remember to take a picture, which is the reason the shrimps are, umm, absent ^.^ Oops.

Khazana

Update Saturday December 19, 2010.

Hubby and I went back to Khazana for more yummy curries, though we were too late and missed the weekend lunch buffet and had the dinner sets instead. We ordered the Pair Course meal for two for 4,900yen, which is a great deal given how much food we got. We left the place stuffed and still had leftover saffron rice to take home!

The Pair Course meal came with all the below. Drinks were extra.

- House salad

- Vegetable samosas

- Tandoori chicken and shrimps

- Choices of 2 curries

- Saffron rice

- Garlic nan

- Dessert

The house salad was quite yummy and I actually ate all mine! The samosas was good but could have been better because the shell was a bit tough and wasn't crispy enough. However, the tamarind chutney that came with them was delicious! It was a perfect balance between tart and sweet, and all the tamarind chutneys I've had in the past were either too tart or too sweet.

The tandoori chicken was spicy and fragrant and seriously delicious! We got a whole breast including the wing and a whole thigh including the drumstick, pretty much half a freakin' chicken! And you know what the most impressive part was - the breast meat was juicy and tender and was not dry at all! Pretty amazing stuff! And holy smokin' cheese those shrimps were gigantic!

For the 2 curries, we picked the Butter Marsala Chicken in spicy tomato base curry and a Coconut Shrimp curry, which is apparently a very popular curry with women diners. Hubby inhaled the chicken curry in a heartbeat. He wasn't too keen on the coconut curry because he's not a fan of shrimps at all. And while I enjoyed the coconut curry, it was creamy and the shrimps were succulent, I think I prefer the chicken curry too ^.^ The saffron rice was good, but we both like the garlic nan much better. They were crispy and not too overwhelmingly garlicy.

Overall, I'd totally go for that Pair Course again, with 2 different choices of curries until we sample them all ^.^

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Hubby happens to walk through Queens Square on his way to and from school, and looking at Khazana every day makes one nostalgic for some Indian cuisines ^.^ Good thing what we read online were mostly positive, so we decided to try their lunch all you can eat buffet on a weekday, just to sample the curries and whatnot.

The verdict - the curries were great! Sure, we've had better curry in Jersey, but hey, who can beat an all you can eat buffet lunch for only 1,000yen/person (weekdays only, about $12)? I can't even describe how remarkably cheap a 1,000yen buffet lunch is, especially for a restaurant in glitzy Queens Square. Holy cow, how do they manage that kind of rent with these pricing?!?

Anyway, the weekday lunch buffet includes 4 curries (details below), 2 rices (saffron and steamed), butter nan, those addictive cracker chip, sweet chutney sauce, very spicy red sauce, pickled onions, very Japanese-y shredded cabbage salad, and another very Japanese-y seaweed salad. Drinks are charged separately, though also affordable at only 250yen. Weekend lunch buffet are 1,300yen, about $16), and in addition to the same items above, there are chicken tandoori, kebabs, desserts, and a few other things not served during the weekday lunch buffet. Yep, hubby and I are going back this very weekend to try the chicken tandoori and kebab and I will definitely update with more food pictures! ^.^

Here's my (2nd, or was it 3rd?) plate with chicken curry, nan, sweet chutney sauce mixed with spicy sauce, cracker chips, and hot chai (a separate 250yen).

The 4 types of curries served are:

1. Dal, a legume vegetarian curry. Hubby and his friend loved this, but I didn't so much. Don't get me wrong, the Dal curry was very tasty, but I grew up eating beans as sweetened desserts in puddings and whatnot, so savory Tex-Mex bean dishes at home in the states are already trying for my taste buds even though I love, love, love Tex-Mex. Yeah, let's just say I wasn't too keen with this legume curry, even if it was good.

2. Vegetable curry, I assumed this was vegetarian also. It was spicy and had cauliflowers and chopped green beans. Yum!

3. Egg curry...Erhh...none of us were brave enough to try this dish, so... :X

4. Chicken curry, delicious! It was spicy and the chicken was super tender! I ate 2 bowls of this curry haha! :D